I think this is a substantial improvement on the section as submitted yesterday, but it still makes it possible for a person doing a substantial amount of agricultural work not to have his wages regulated by this board. It may, of course, be difficult at this stage to clarify the matter further without perhaps going too far, but I should like if the Minister would give us some idea as to what he has in mind as meaning "mainly employed on domestic service".

Dr. Ryan

That may be true. But you may get an agricultural labourer working for 12 hours a day. He may be six hours on agricultural work. In that case you will find that person exempt from the provisions of this Act. If the farmer could work the labourer long enough on a combination of agricultural work and domestic work, he might be able to get out of him sufficient agricultural work to exclude him altogether from the scope of the Bill.

Before we proceed with this stage, Sir, I should like to know if the Minister would give us the section of the Interpretation Act which, he says, gives him power to do something which the Bill, presumably, gives him power to do and which he cannot do until the Bill becomes an Act. It seems extraordinary, if he is empowered under the Bill to do something, that he can do it before the Bill becomes an Act at all, under the Interpretation Act. I should like to know what section of the Interpretation Act the Minister refers to.

Dr. Ryan

What I said was that anything that is necessary to be done in order to bring the Act into operation can be done before the Act actually comes into operation. What is to be done, of course, must be implied in the Bill. As I have said, I must appoint the members of the board, but I presume that I cannot do anything more than I am told to do.

Dr. Ryan

Well, if that power is given by a particular section of this Bill, I cannot see how the Minister can possibly exercise that power until the Bill becomes an Act, and I want to know under what section of the Interpretation Act he is empowered to do so.

Dr. Ryan

I think, Sir, that there is some confusion here. The Minister is advised that, in the interim between the time when we pass the Bill making it an Act and the time of the Order bringing it into operation, he is allowed to take such steps as are necessary preparatory to bringing it into operation, but he could not do it until we pass the Bill.

I could understand it quite well if the Minister were merely looking around the place with a view to choosing people—choosing, let us say, A, B, C and D—as members of the board, and then, after the Act comes into operation, making them members of the board, but how he can make them members of the board before the Bill becomes an Act is what I cannot see.

What I want to know is, whether or not I am right in thinking that the Minister is given power under the terms of this Bill to appoint a board. If he is given that power under the terms of the Bill or if he has the power already under a section of some other Act, as we hear from his advisers that he has under the Interpretation Act, why, then, is the power given to him under the terms of this Bill? I think that it merely creates confusion.

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